The White House has issued new rules aimed at companies that manufacture synthetic DNA after years of warnings that a pathogen made with mail-order genetic material could accidentally or intentionally spark the next pandemic. The rules, released on April 29, are the result of an executive order signed by President Joe Biden last fall to establish new standards for AI safety and security, including AI applied to biotechnology. Artificially generated DNA allows researchers to do all sorts of things--develop diagnostic tests, make beneficial enzymes to eat up plastic, or engineer potent antibodies to treat disease--without having to extract natural sequences from organisms. Need to study a rare type of bacteria? Instead of going out into the field to collect a sample, its genetic sequence can simply be ordered from a DNA synthesis company instead.

After successfully synthesizing artificial DNA strands from Baker's yeast using nothing but laboratory equipment and human ingenuity, scientists working as part of the so-called Synthetic Yeast Project (SC2.0) are now ready to move onto their next endeavor: The synthesis of artificial human DNA. Set to be released in just two years, the first artificial lifeforms that mimic the DNA found in nature and replicate it for biotechnology purposes could end up unleashing a cascade of human tampering with nature. Synthetic DNA, researchers say, can now be manufactured in the lab and swapped out with the natural DNA in living organisms, resulting in the creation of new synthetic organisms that can be programmed to do all sorts of things that they otherwise wouldn't do naturally. Though the team that worked on the Baker's yeast only synthesized 30 percent of the Baker's yeast DNA that it was working with, it won't be long until the entire DNA set is replicated and apportioned for use. And since this DNA closely resembles that of human DNA, the sky's the limit when it comes to the clinical potential of synthetic DNA.

Scientists in the US have succeeded in developing the first living cell to be controlled entirely by synthetic DNA. The researchers constructed a bacterium's "genetic software" and transplanted it into a host cell. The resulting microbe then looked and behaved like the species "dictated" by the synthetic DNA. The advance, published in Science, has been hailed as a scientific landmark, but critics say there are dangers posed by synthetic organisms. Some also suggest that the potential benefits of the technology have been over-stated.